International-Standard Pilot Project Schools

The following are short articles taken from the Jakarta Post in the past couple of weeks. The notion of a strata of schools for the children of rich parents has caused concern for some time, especially as the schools' management bodies are able to charge high fees - and national schools are not supposed to charge any. That the quality of education provided is in no way comparable to that provided by genuine international schools, originally established for the children of expatriate parents.

An editorial in the Jakarta Post in March last year (2010) closed with these remarks.

It is the task of all elements in this country to improve the quality of our education, which ranks low even among Asian countries. Therefore, we appreciate the number of corporations that run schools, including those with international standards.

However, it is also unwise for the government to push certain schools, including state ones, to open the international standards of services in the absence of proper educational infrastructure and teaching staff who meet the requirements set for such schools. Besides, we need all categories of schools to serve society’s various demands.

Obviously, judging by the following news articles, no-one in the Department of Education reads the Post.

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Teachers to request review of RSBI schools

Retno Listyarti, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Federated Teachers Union (FSGI) says the FSGI will request a judicial review of the National Educational System Law that administers international-standard pilot project schools (RSBI).

Several NGOs would join the union in backing the review, Retno said, including the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), and the Education Coalition.

The review request would challenge article 50 of the law, which obliges every regency or city to have an RSBI school, Retno said as reported by tempointeraktif.com.

The presence of the RBSI schools has irked critics, who claim that the schools segregate students from different economic backgrounds.

There have been huge disparities between the facilities for traditional and international students. While international program classrooms are typically equipped with posh tables and chairs, only second-rate facilities are available for regular track students, even within the same school.

Retno, a teacher at SMAN 13 Jakarta said an international-class student at the state high school could pay up to Rp 31 million (US$3,500) a year in fees and tuition.

“Education should be based on our values and culture. It should not be like airline flights, where there are economy and executive classes,” Retno said on Tuesday.

RSBI schools prone to corruption: Activists

The establishment of international standard pilot-project schools (RSBI) not only widens the gap between the affluent and the poor, but opens new corruption opportunities, activists say.

“There are many findings that point to potential corruption,” said Febri Hendri from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), regarding documents consisting of SMPN 1 state junior high school’s budget and its cash book for the 2010/2011 academic year at the Jakarta Education Agency on Thursday.

ICW and the Alliance of Parents Concerned with Indonesian Education (APPI) visited the agency to submit a proof of corruption indication report on SMPN 1 in Cikini, Central Jakarta.

RSBI is a category of state schools in the process of achieving international standard school (SBI) status. Unlike regular state schools, RSBIs can charge parents monthly fees.

Febri said on Oct. 18 2010, for example, the school spent Rp 1 million (US$117) of unallocated funds on Central Jakarta RSBI supervisors as incentives, which the ICW viewed as gratuity fees. The school also provided Rp 9 million in transportation funds to a certain monitoring, evaluation and supervision team.

“What is this for? If the priority is supervision of SMPN 1, why is the money going this way?” he said.

Febri read out a total of 16 oddities and potential corruption cases in the school’s treasury accounts.

SMPN 1 is one of four RSBI schools in the region that refused to disclose their accountability report and planned expenditure budget, which the Central Information Commission (KIP) has officially categorized as public information.

SMAN 70 Jakarta senior high school in South Jakarta, another of the four schools under scrutiny, has also raised suspicions on matters of discretion.

Musni Umar, a parent and SMAN 70 school committee member, said the same situation was occurring at his child’s school. “We will take it to the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK].”

Education agency deputy chief Agus Suradika promised to look into the case. “We will study the documents and announce our response in 14-days time at the latest,” he said.

There are 10 RSBI senior high schools in Jakarta of a total 117 senior high schools. There are 11 RSBI junior high schools of 287 and 7 RSBI elementary schools of more than 2,000.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has recently ordered an evaluation of RSBI schools following complaints regarding the schools’ failure to achieve superior academic achievement.

RSBI schools ‘worsen’ social divide

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) has urged the government to change its international standard school funding policy, which it says widens the gap between rich and poor students.

Only children from affluent families can afford international-standard schools (SBI) and international-standard pilot project schools (RSBI). Ironically, these schools receive more government funding, instead of the poorer schools that definitely need more attention, said FITRA investigation and advocacy coordinator Uchok Sky Khadafi in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“This very unjust and discriminating policy will prompt regional administrations to compete in opening SBIs and RSBIs so they can earn block grants from the central government,” Uchok said.

“And this will cause those regional administrations to spend more on those international standard schools and at the same time abandon schools in outlying areas that actually need more money from the regional budgets.”

Uchok added that the government had allocated Rp 242 billion (US$27.35 million) to SBI and RSBI schools next year and only Rp 108 billion for regular schools, even though the latter constituted the majority.

You’ve got to have standards

Especially if you're spending the money of Indonesia's rakyat (citizenry) on full colour quarter page ads in the Jakarta Post.

Wikipedia has this to say about Bank Rakyat Indonesia (tr. People's Bank of Indonesia).

It is one of the larger banks in Indonesia. It specialises in small scale and microfinance style borrowing from and lending to its approximately 30 million retail clients through its over 4,000 branches, units and rural service posts. It also has a comparatively small, but growing, corporate business.

It is currently 70% government owned operating company (Persero) and has been government owned for the entire period since the war of independence (1945 to 1949) to November 2003, when 30% of its shares were sold through an IPO.

And this is what BRI has to say to its "small scale and microfinance style" clientele.

Fly Anywhere with your Reserved Private Aircraft

Proudly present a new and exclusive reservation service to 
fly with private aircraft to any destination you would like to go.

Enjoy convenience at it's truly means as our special customer

Term & Condition apply

BRI Prioritas
Untuk Pribadi Terpilih (tr.For 'Choice' People)

I'm going to ignore the appalling English and not going to wonder about the singular term and condition. However, it is worth noting that of late society seems unable to focus on what really matters.
For example, note the use of the word bule in this headline: Selundupkan Biji Ganja Bule Jerman Dibekuk (White German Marijuana Smuggler Arrested)

As a regular reader (Hi Del) commented, "What if the guy was black? How would they get round that? Interesting that you're a "bule" first and a "orang" second."

This surface attention is widespread.

A number of schools have taken to labelling themselves as "International", which is strange as they are extremely unlikely to have expatriate students or even come close to what they advertise.

A number of complaints in the media, such as those I highlighted here seem to have forced the government to take action. As per usual, they're missing the point and leaving many educators confused.

A 2009 education ministerial, which will come into force on March 30, 2010, stipulates that the curricula applied at international schools must cover the teaching of religion, civics and the Indonesian language. The teaching of these three subjects must be conducted in Indonesian.

There are a number of International Schools in Indonesia which were established during the Suharto era to provide schooling for the children of peripatetic expatriate workers, generally 'consultants' and managerial staff working for multi-national companies, such as oil companies. Parallel schools in other countries offered a continuity of education for these children.

Leading up to, and especially following the Asian Economic Meltdown of the late 90s (and known as krismon here) jobs were expected to be 'Indonesianised' through a "transfer of technology". Naturally, the school rolls tumbled. Because they were expected to be financially self-sufficient, many schools began to accept the children of better off Indonesians who would otherwise be sending their children to study in Singapore.

Mistakes were certainly made. After all, the Jakarta International School (JIS) should not have accepted the young son of Theo Toemion, the then chairman of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, who assaulted the 14 year old referee of his 7 year old son's basketball match and executives from U.S. companies including ExxonMobil, Nike, Unocal and ConocoPhillips.

Theo was subsequently jailed for massive corruption. Presumably some of his ill-gotten gains found their way into the coffers of JIS.

And such is the amount of such spare cash floating around that a number of private schools, including Penabur, which charge high fees for teaching to the test, decided to cream off some of it by opening so-called 'international classes' in their regular schools.

A few white faces, never mind the qualifications - even naval chefs will do - and a few foreign course books, mainly from Singapore, and they had ready made glossy advertising.

But it's all gone wrong. There are few schools which offer - and I'm quoting from a recent job ad - active, student-centered learning and facilitate active exploration,discovery and interaction with people and materials. That this ad was placed by a school which is apparently Leading the Human Development Paradigm does not necessarily mean anything other than that they hiding behind buzzwords with little sense of what they mean. After all, they have a very high staff turnover.

Every time there is a new Minister of Education we hear tell of a new curriculum. New partnerships are formed with companies which rebuild a few rural schools in the name of corporate social responsibility, and other minor tinkerings take place, yet aesthetics have yet to take over from bean counting.

A recent editorial in the Jakarta Post closed with these remarks.

It is the task of all elements in this country to improve the quality of our education, which ranks low even among Asian countries. Therefore, we appreciate the number of corporations that run schools, including those with international standards.

However, it is also unwise for the government to push certain schools, including state ones, to open the international standards of services in the absence of proper educational infrastructure and teaching staff who meet the requirements set for such schools. Besides, we need all categories of schools to serve society’s various demands.

I only half agree with these fine sentiments because they don't go far enough. It is my contention that if Indonesia, by which I mean all sectors of society concerned with schools and the nature of education, and not merely with upgrading the nation's schooling to an 'international' level, should establish an independent commission. This would have the remit to establish curricula for schools which take into account the multi-cultural distinctiveness of the country, the disparity between the regions in terms of economic resources, and the multiple-intelligences of students.

The commission should also oversee the establishment of a "proper educational infrastructure" including an overhaul of teacher training so that all teachers (including expatriates) are suitably qualified and are given regular professional back up and subject updates.

The Department of Education, whilst continuing to administrate, would also need 'supervision' to ensure that funds are not 'mislaid' and that targets are met. Above all, procedures and priorities should not be subject to whim of political (or business) appointees who invariably have short-term goals.

This will all inevitably take longer than a government's term of office, but a dynamic country needs people with vision.

It's a myopic malaise which has resulted in the current concern over the educational standards which ill-serve the rakyat.

They also don't need crap ads offering a private plane ride.